Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 13
13
We recommend that, as part of its commitment to levelling up, the Government should establish...
Recommendation
We recommend that, as part of its commitment to levelling up, the Government should establish a new publicly funded advisory body of experts with a focus on the potential impact of changes in the world of work on different groups in the labour market. The Government should use the now-closed UK Commission for Employment and Skills as a model for what it could look like: that is, a publicly funded but independent body whose membership could consist of employers, trade unions, training providers and representatives from the third sector. The role of this new body should be to produce intelligence about the impact that changes such as automation may have on different demographic groups, including those that are most likely to experience the effects of these changes, and provide advice and make policy recommendations to the Government on that basis. It should work with and provide guidance to employers, including about how they can increase the diversity of their workforce through changes to their recruitment practices, such as encouraging more employers to adopt name- blind recruitment. (Paragraph 66) Short-term changes
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
DWP understands why the committee thinks this would be helpful but does not have any plans to introduce markers on the Universal Credit (UC) system. Instead we are exploring ways how claimants tell us about circumstances that might affect their claim to UC. This information will then be held on their UC account so that our staff are aware of the characteristics to tailor support accordingly. DWP has introduced a mechanism for claimants to tell us about any experience of serving in the armed forces and are in the process of designing and building a process for claimants who have experience of being in care. Following this we will evaluate the impact of introducing these questions on our claimant and agent experience before deciding how we progress with other claimant characteristics. Both Kickstart and Restart programmes also have their own evaluation processes to understand how they are working for different groups.2